Freshh2o

I noticed some time ago that when cornering on my bike, I seemed to do it a lot better on some days than others. I started to pay attention to my technique and discovered a strange thing that at first seemed quite counter-intuitive: I found that when turning right (for example), I had really good control if I was pushing down and forward on the right handlegrip. Vice versa for left, of course. The bike went into a firm lean and I cornered smoothly, and definitely more sharply than if I just threw my weight over. This seemed odd to me because it seemed that I was effectively attempting to steer the bike the other way. I guessed that what I was doing was pushing the bike down into a lean. As it turns out, that is not the entire explanation.

By chance I happened upon a comment in one of the threads on Kiwi Biker the other day. The writer mentioned, in passing, mastering "countersteering". This piqued my interest. So I went Googling... Connection!

The most useful thing I have picked up this year!!! I had wondered why sometimes I corner like a pro and other times I falter and stray wide. This is something everyone should know before they get a licence. And I really appreciated the explanation for why I fell off when I first tried to ride a bicycle on the farm in Ohariu Valley back in 1957.

Now I am concentrating on mastering the art of consciously countersteering.
Countersteering (Wikipedia)
More on counter steering... (Also Wikipedia)